Rhode Island College

The Education Blog

9:29 am

Thu November 14, 2013

New standards for teacher programs will link quality measures to factors that include student test scores. The standards also raise the bar for admissions to teacher programs, calling for undergraduate applicants to have at least a 2.75 grade point average.

The new standards are part of an ongoing effort to improve teaching in Rhode Island's public schools. I asked Nancy Castagno from Rhode Island College to weigh in on the standards, and she said RIC and URI have both been working closely with state officials to craft the language of the standards.

Higher Education

11:30 am

Wed November 13, 2013

Rhode Island College has decided against arming its campus police force. In an email, RIC President Nancy Carriuolo said a campus survey showed the college community about equally divided on the issue, though she stressed the vast majority did not respond to the survey.

Carriuolo said she made the decision after discussions with campus police and her cabinet.

Rhode Island College has seen a nearly 60 percent increase in the number of veterans on campus since 2009.

RIC has taken steps to better serve veterans, including opening a Veterans’ Resource Center, which helps connect veterans to a wide variety of services, including federal and state tuition assistance.

The center also employs student veterans in work study positions and makes regular phone calls to veterans to see how they are doing. RIC says the calls are a way of checking in on student veterans, who may not visit the resource center but may still have questions.

RI News

8:46 am

Mon November 4, 2013

At Rhode Island College an ambitious project is underway. A group of faculty and students is building online tours of the capital city’s historic North Burial Ground.

Rhode Island College political science professor Francis Leazes admits he’s hooked on cemeteries. And in his view there is no finer from an historical perspective than Providence’s North Burial Ground on North Main Street.

The Education Blog

9:09 am

Thu September 12, 2013

Jewelry success story Alex and Ani has purchased naming rights to the basketball court at the University of Rhode Island's Ryan Center for an undisclosed sum. The men's and women's basketball teams will take the court this season with the Alex & Ani logo prominently displayed at both ends of the floor.

URI is not the only state university upgrading facilities thanks to the company's largesse. The Alex and Ani name will also grace a new arts center scheduled to open this year at Rhode Island College.

Once again, Rhode Island has embarked on an advertising campaign to raise our state’s flagging self-esteem. RIPR political analyst Scott MacKay says it’s time for us to stop running down our tiny corner of New England.

Back in 1996, when Jack Reed was running his first U.S. Senate campaign, Texas Gov. Ann Richards came to Newport to speak at a Reed fund-raiser. The tart-tongued Texan introduced the vertically-challenged Rhode Island Democrat by saying to prolonged laughter that Reed is proof ``that size doesn’t matter.’’

Mon July 29, 2013

With the rising temperatures comes a spike in crime across the capital city. In a series we’re calling Hot City: Crime in Providence we’re taking a look at summer crime by focusing the month of July. Last year the area encompassing Smith Hill, Elmhurst and the North End saw the highest number of crimes. Rhode Island Public Radio’s Catherine Welch visits a street in that area where a dozen crimes happened in one month.

On Politics

12:16 pm

Wed July 3, 2013

Tis the high season of summer in the Ocean State and the time of hijinks at the State House. As the hours dwindle towards adjournment, items big and small sometimes get lost in the last-minute shuffle as the competing egos in the House and Senate square off.

One very important economic development and education issue to watch: the fate of the resolution needed to move forward the plan to revive a gateway to the old Jewelry District in Providence by putting a nursing school in the old Dynamo Building, the onetime South Street power station.